I really should be happy that of all the “people” in the universe my child would choose to have Jesus for his imaginary friend.
To be honest, the whole idea of an imaginary friend creeps me out a little. I picture myself standing in the doorway watching my happy little child play alone when all of a sudden they say something totally unnerving like, “Don’t knock my blocks over, Tommy.”
When, if your child were playing with a little Tommy, this situation would be completely underwhelming. But, given the fact he is alone and you — nor him — know a Tommy, the whole situation reminds you of all those R-rated movies starring 6-year-olds who see dead people.
When my son was 2-3 he talked about a little boy all the time. He would say things like, "The little boy in the hall wants to know why his daddy killed him." And, "Can I go play with the little boy in the kitchen now?" A few months later my son was playing on the floor with a toy truck. He was talking to someone, like a normal conversation. I said, "Who are you talking to, Baby?" He said, "David...this used to be his truck." It was something he picked out from the thrift over a year before! It went back to the thrift store soon after.
When my son was younger he would talk to "the boys that lived in his closet." they would tell him to do bad things. Like take off his diaper, crap in his garbage can, and paint the walls with his poop... that was fun.
When my daughter was about 4 she would wake up in the middle of the night screaming about a man that lived under her bed. We moved her into another room thinking it may help, and after a few weeks sleeping through the night we asked her if the man was gone. She said, "Yes, no scary monsters in this room, only the cowboy." I asked her what he looked like and how she knew he was a cowboy. She said he looked like a character in a movie and that he lives down the street by the commissary, and that he was hit by a car and died there! She said he had a big hole in the back of his head.
When I was 18 weeks pregnant, my 4-year-old walked in, looked at me, and said, "Baby is gone now, but it's okay she's an angel." I didn't really know what to think. Later that night I failed to find the baby's heartbeat on my home doppler and went to the ER where I met my OB. He said the baby had died very recently.
When my son was 3, I noticed several times he would seem to be talking to the walls. I really didn't think much of it until I noticed he was actually following something around the room with his eyes very intently. He was quite obviously engaged with something. Then one night he was in his chair and I saw him get startled for no reason and do the eye thing. I asked him what he was looking at and he said, "The man wears a face mask with noodles around his neck." I called a medium to come to our house and she said she felt at presence of an older man with breathing problems, who likely used an oxygen tank.
Photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr.
I moved in with my husband and his dad while we were dating and saving money to buy a house. My husband's mom passed away in that house. One day when my nephew was visiting, he froze in the doorway. He said, "There's a ghost in there." I said, "No there is not. Let's go in so you can go potty." As we walked in, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Then who is that lady?"
My oldest daughter used to talk to her "friend" who lived in her closet. I thought it was cute, until one day I asked if she could tell me more about her and she said she was short with long tangled black hair, greenish skin, sharp teeth, glowing eyes, and long dirty fingernails. Eek! I told her if she saw her again to tell her to go away. She never mentioned her again.
My husband's late father bought a '67 mustang as a teen and kept it all his life. He passed away 15 years ago and we now have it in our garage. Periodically my son will want to "drive," so he hops in the driver's seat. When he was 2, he was "driving" and he yelled out the window, "Hey, Daddy, get in the back with Poppa!" My husband asked him to repeat himself and he said, "Get in the back with Poppa. You know, the one who has the big gun." We only had one picture of my late father-in-law who served in the Gulf War but had yet to show it to my son.
When my little sister was 3 she would always talk about her friend Amy, who was also 3 and had holes in her face. One day when my brother, older sister, and I were walking in the cemetery across the street we found a headstone for a little named Amy who had died almost 100 years ago...at the age of 3.
My sister had two miscarriages in the early 90's and our grandma passed away in 1999. Once in 2002, when my sister arrived home from the grocery store, my niece said that my grandma came to visit and was holding two babies and she wanted her to tell my sister everything would be okay.
Photo credit: Alex Santos Silva/Flickr.
When my daughter was 2 I heard her talking in her bedroom. I came back to the room and asked who she was talking to and she turned around and told me, "Grandma in the clouds." I had never said that phrase before, nor did I tell her yet about my mom who passed away only 13 months before she was born. She still, at 7, tells me my mom comes to her when she is sleeping to ask why I don't talk to her anymore and that she loves our new house.
My daughter recently revealed to me that she was glad we moved because she felt uneasy falling asleep in her old room. She said it was because the man with no mouth and his dog would stand in the corner and stare at her while she tried to fall asleep.
Last year, my 11-year-old cousin Jacob died in March. We still had a birthday party for him in October. When we got home my 2-year-old said, "Mommy, Jacob looked so pretty in his white dress, and he loved his cake."
Our house is haunted. Things finally started to make sense when my daughter told me she talks to two girls who died in a fire that their coal stove started. She also told me the girls told her about a fire at the lumber mill in town and that their dad was a lumber jack. While I researched our town and house, it was creepy because everything she said checked out.
My nephew was extremely close to his grandpa. They spent time together almost every other day. My nephew was 3 when he died. One day my sister picked him up from school and he said, "Poppa says, 'hey.' " She was a little surprised but asked him when. He said, "Today at school. Poppa comes and watches me play. He sits in the rocking chair."
When I was 4 I was sitting on the living room floor playing with my dolls. My mom asked what I was doing and I told her I was playing with my friend Otilia. I told her she says 'hi' and that she loves her very much. My mom was a little surprised because she didn't remember telling me about her childhood friend, but didn't pay too much attention because I used to play with imaginary people all the time. That afternoon my mom received a phone call from her sister saying that Otilia had passed away.
My son is 2 1/2. I recently started to believe in spirits because of him. I actually got voices on video. Not too long ago my son started talking about ghosts and one night I was messing around with our video camera and my son suddenly points to the corner and says, "Oooo ghost!" I started recording immediately. When playing the video back there are clearly voices.
When my niece was 3 she had found a photo album at my mom's and was looking through it with me. All of a sudden she pointed to a picture and exclaimed, "That's Pa!" I asked her how she recognized him and she told me that he visits her at night and tucks her in. Pa was my grandfather who died when I was 12. My niece wasn't born until I was 14, so she had never met him.
My son (4) has talked about a little boy who "can't play" with him and a man who "tries to talk but his voice is muffled." To explain this, he puts his hand over his mouth and tries to talk. This is at his daycare, which is across the street from a cemetery. He's been talking about them without any prompt since he started going there when he was 2. He says he isn't afraid of them but he tells the man to stop talking to him because it's frustrating because he can't understand what he is saying.
When my daughter was 5, she looked at me one day and asked me if I believed in ghosts. I told her that I wasn't sure and asked why. She said, "Because there is one standing behind you."
When my son was younger he used to see my mom who had died ten years ago. He kept pointing to an empty chair saying, "Who's that lady?" over and over. Six months later I dug out family pictures, some with my mom, and my son said he knew that lady and that she played with him often.
My 2-year-old daughter claims she talks to her uncle Danny. Danny is my brother who passed away when I was in my teens. She tells me that he knocks on her door and then comes in and they read stories and play together.
My niece used to say there was an old man that would sit at the end of her bed at night. At one point we were going through pictures at my mom's house and my niece started crying. When we asked what was wrong she pointed to a picture of my grandpa and said he was the man who sits on her bed. My grandpa died when my sister was pregnant with my niece.
So, thankfully, my son has not told me he sees dead people, but I have caught him talking to no one and he has often discussed his friend, Jesus.
As a Christian you would think I would be elated. And at first I was. Now, with all the mischief Franklin and “Jesus” have been getting into I’m not quite sure his Jesus and mine are the same “person.”
Frankie has started using his friend as a ploy. Knowing how much I love Jesus, Frankie will come to me and ask for things in the name of our Lord and Savior. Two instances that pop into mind are, “Mom, Jesus needs a fruit snack. Can I have one to give to him?” or “Mom, Jesus said he wants me to watch TV.”
And while I caved on the fruit snack request — it was just too hilarious not to. And, of course, I caught Franklin eating poor Jesus’s treat behind our couch later, I have learned to say no.
It seems a little silly saying things to thin air like, “Sorry Jesus, Mom says no Cheetos for lunch.” However, I am very happy to have Jesus in our home — imaginary or not.
And although I don’t really like the idea of pretend people, I am a little less alarmed with an imaginary friend who happens to be part of the Holy Trinity versus a creepy little boy named David who lives in the kids’ closet and says he drowned in the pond by our house.
And if the most trouble Frankie and Jesus get into is sneaking outside to jump on the trampoline without asking, or into the barn to smash freshly-laid eggs from our chickens, I think I can live with that.
Photo credit: kevinwgarrett, Flickr.
